A seasoned Sambhar is not Dal Barabar

Not in the family first non-Parsi head of Tata Sons raises questions of what value different communities bring to corporates and if there is a time for this to change.Vikram Doctor | ET Bureau | January 14, 2017, 09:07 IST

Mumbai: Parsi Sambhar Masala really exists. It might seem like something newly concocted for use in Tata canteens post the ascension of the Tamilian N.Chandrasekaran as the first non-Parsi head of Tata Sons. But it has long been possible to buy Parsi Sambhar Masala in Mumbai and Gujarat to be used as one of the essential flavourings for the iconic Parsi dish dhansak.

It is, of course, not quite the same as the sambhar masala ubiquitous in South Indian kitchens. In any case, South Indian sambhar is clearly the winner, to the extent that the sambaro is barely known outside Gujarati homes, while Gujarati style sambhar rules in Mumbai, slightly sweetened to Gujarati tastes ­ and much to the disgust of many South Indians.

All this might prove that community concerns are no longer relevant, or are so malleable as to lose any particular meaning. This might seem particularly pertinent to Parsis, to whom the battles at Tata Sons seem to have come like almost a personal blow. “It's like we had an airplane where one wing was Tata and the other wing was Godrej. Now one wing looks like it is going so what will happen to the plane?“ one Parsi gentleman told me sadly.

One response might be that corporates should not be viewed in such community terms. Taking most of your people from one community might have made sense in the past, and in early stages where people need to trust and understand each other, and that is easiest done from a common cultural background. Communities also used to have mechanisms to invest in entrepreneurs from within, partly from the desire to conserve community capital.

As businesses grow and diversify though this might be expected to disappear. Profit and loss is not parochial and, especially as corporates become multinationals like Tata now is, it should not matter which community its chairman comes from. (And anyway, as the more obstreperous might point out, they chose a Parsi the first time round and look where that ended up).

This is perhaps to misunderstand the continued use of community markers.They can, it's true, be ways to exclude outsiders, but it is unlikely that such an inwardly focussed company will keep doing well on a truly global scale. Samsung benefitted from the tight links of Korean society and the intense drive to succeed to reach its global scale ­ but that same rigid structure and deference to hierarchy is now blamed for not spotting and stopping the exploding battery problem that has almost sunk it.

But this hardly describes the Tata group which has long welcomed nonParsis at nearly all levels. Here the interest in community seems more like a way to help understand individuals.When you are asked in a train which caste or community you come from you can either see it as a way to slot and dismiss you ­ or as a way to open up a wider conversation in which community is just the first marker, the easiest for someone to start with, to get to know you as an individual. It is not that the first urge does not exist, but the second does too, and more often than one imagines.

So to talk about Chandrasekaran being Tamil Brahmin might start with considerations of similarity to Parsis. Both relatively small communities (much smaller, obviously, with Parsis). Both with strong traditions of education and professional achievement (though not every member). Both with a sense of being marginalised by society or social change and an urge to survive regardless (which may or may not be true, but is certainly how many see it).

But that would just be the first point in understanding the man, and then one would need to proceed to his public career in TCS, his interactions with other at an institutional level at NASSCOM, and finally to what those who have worked closely with him feel.Which is all much as how the committee that selected him would have proceeded, leading up to the final question: what will he bring to Tatas?And here it might be worth going back to Parsi sambhar masala, that curious spice blend which is both essential to dhansak but rarely used elsewhere.Kurush Dalal, the Parsi food specialist and caterer says that it has a distinct role from the dhansak masala, which is also essential to the dish: “Dhansak masala has many more spices, but mostly the more aromatic, sweeter spices. Sambhar masala has the strong pickle-type spices, like mustard seed, chillies and also, curiously, salt.“

Dalal emphasises the pungent nature of the spices used in Parsi sambhar masala, like special skinned mustard seeds and also, sometimes, oil: “Dhansak masala is used with several other dishes, but Parsi sambhar masala is nearly only used in dhansak.“ If dhansak masala gives an aromatic profile to the dish, Parsi sambhar masala seems to add the pungent, salty kick that gives it real vigour. If this is what Chandrasekaran can really bring to Tatas, all issues of community will soon seem irrelevant.